Spring break is this week, and since this was the first time since we've moved here that we had nothing going on this week, I had all these grand plans. No family was coming to town (2008), I wasn't traveling to Holland (2009), we weren't traveling to Holland together (2010), and we weren't cruise-bound either (2011). It was going to be awesome. Excuse me, AWESOME.
I was going to start by relaxing. A lot. Then I was going to take a lot of naps. Then I was going to spend a lot of time watching all those movies I'd meaning to watch on On Demand. Oh, and visit Starbucks a lot. Probably to wake me up from all those naps. And once I got all that done, I was going to do a whole host of useful things as well, such as finally clean our fridge (if anyone can tell me how the shelves get dirty when all you do is put closed stuff such as milk and containers of salad on them, I'd be ever so grateful, as this continues to boggle my mind). I was going to get my dry cleaning done, catch up on my ironing, my grading, and my reading. I was going to get my pictures from the past year (!) developed, get the dogs groomed, and master our new bread-machine. I was going to revise an article, weed the front yard, get some good exercise in, and spend plenty of time getting ready for Friday's conference, so that I would not be rushing my ironing and presentation prep at the last minute.
So can someone tell me WHY it's almost 8pm right now, and I JUST finished my presentation? And I still have to iron my shirt? And I feel positively frazzled?
Never mind, I can tell you why. The short answer would be that I'm a workaholic idiot, but a half-a$$ed one at that. An alternative short answer is that I started spring break by writing a ridiculously long to-do list in the first place. A third alternative answer is that there was no way I could have done all of those things in a week. The long answer is that I reversed the list in the previous paragraph. I didn't start by relaxing, watching movies, and catching up on my sleep, thus being fully prepared to tackle my insane list. Oh no, heavens forbid, of course not. The sky will fall and birds will obviously stop singing if I were to ever attempt that. No, I started by getting the dogs groomed, doing a 70-mile bike ride, baking three loaves of bread in two days, getting pictures developed, grading mounds and mounds of student papers, and cleaning the house. And then I swam some, ran some, took the car in for an oil change, did groceries, graded some more student work, and going to the physical therapist. And then I realized, crap, it's Thursday evening, and I just ran out of time.
Long story short; the fridge is still dirty, I still have not revised my article or read any of those articles I needed to, and the front yard still needs weeding. Oh and those movies and naps? Yeah, I never got around to those either. Not only did I not get my list completely done, I also did not get to unwind. In short, a double-plus-failure. If you're going to be a workaholic, you need to be completely absolutely gung ho about it, and complete you freaking list. If you're going to be a sloth, be a total and complete bump on a log.
Note to self: You can't be both.
Next year we'll just have to fly across the world or take a cruise again. It apparently is the only way to get me to unwind.
Now excuse me while I go finish some last-minute things.
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